


Shadows

by weirdness_in_the_making



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Crying, Everyone is tired, Happy Ending, M/M, hunk is a snoop, keith and Pidge are tired, pining but more subtle Shiro, pining lance, platonic hance, pre-shiro's disappearance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-13
Updated: 2018-01-13
Packaged: 2019-03-04 04:08:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13356189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weirdness_in_the_making/pseuds/weirdness_in_the_making
Summary: Lance always liked shadows for many reasons. One being, it helped him pretend.





	Shadows

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This is my first Shance one shot on AO3. Very excite! I hope you enjoy!

Shadows.

 

They lie. As a small child, you would stay up in you room, shaking in fear as your imagination took over and you saw monsters stretching over the walls. But, oddly enough, Lance learned to like them. 

 

He would stare at his shadow, it hiding his imperfections. It stretched his body as a young child, making him seem older and skinner. The perfect version of himself. Then, he would look into a mirror and realize the lie, but he didn’t care.

 

Even in space, he still liked them, hell, he probably loved them. It may be stupid, but he was in love. Love sick you could say.

 

A mission ended in success, sweat and blood covering Lance and his teammates bodies, but the shadows didn’t show their tiredness. Shiro, as always, lead ahead. Lance was behind him, to the right, near but not close enough to draw attention to him from the Black Paladin. 

 

He stared at the ground. The sun was setting in the horizon behind them, stretching their shadows below them. He hoped the other Paladins were too tired to see Lance’s awkward arm position. It was stretched slightly to the left, towards Shiro.

 

The shadow against the red sand like land made it seem as if they were holding hands. He felt his chest clench in a painful way, knowing it could never happen. Why would it? Shiro was his hero, no way he could ever see Lance as more than just a teammate. 

 

He brought his hand to a fist and slowly moved his hand, their shadows no longer holding hands. He felt a pair of eyes on him, making him look up at Keith, who had an eyebrow raised in a silent question.

 

Lance shook his head and pretended he was stretching his arms. He yawned, bringing the others’ attention to him. “Man, that was exhausting.”

 

“Tell me something I don’t know,” Pidge responded, going to rub her eyes, but realized her helmet was still on. 

 

Lance snorted at this action. “When was the last time you actually slept, Pidgeon?”

 

Pidge glared at him for the nickname. “I’m not sleep deprived again if that is what you’re asking.” 

 

“You seem like you are,” Hunk responded. “Seriously, stop skipping on sleep. It’s not good for you.”

 

“Don’t you think I know that?” Pidge asked, her voice had a shot of venom. She took off her helmet and pinched at the bridge of her nose. “Sorry, Hunk. Maybe I do need sleep.”

 

“It’s fine, I think we all do.” He smiled softly, placing his large hand on top of her fluffy, brown hair and ruffled it.

 

Pidge was clearly too tired to stop him and allowed the action.

 

“Be patient, guys. We’re almost there,” Shiro said, “Promise.” 

 

“Couldn’t be any closer,” Lance complained. He turned towards Hunk and stretched his arms towards him. “Hunkie, my dearest friend, carry me?”

 

“You have feet, use them,” Keith said.

 

Lance stuck out his tongue. “You’re just jealous that I came up with the idea before you could.”

 

Hunk chuckled nonetheless, used to his buddy’s antics. “Of course.” 

 

The group stopped as Hunk turned his back to the lanky boy. Lance grinned at he wrapped his arms around his neck and jumped. As expected, Hunk caught him. 

 

“Seriously?” Is all Shiro could ask as he watched them. 

 

Hunk turned to face him. “It’s fine, Shiro.”

 

“Jealous that I’m not riding you instead?” Lance smirked, his flirting coming out as a habit. Inside, he was dying for what he said. _ Why did he say that? To Shiro of all people! God, this is why Shiro didn’t love him. _ Although he felt this way, he kept his ‘seductive’ mask on, trying not to let it crack. 

 

“Classic,” Keith muttered under his breath. 

 

Pidge just sighed.

 

Shiro, on the other hand, stared at him, with an emotionless expression. There was a slight flush to his cheeks and ears. Either from embarrassment or anger. Didn’t matter since Shiro just turned away from them.

 

Immediately, Lance’s smile fell and he buried his face into Hunk’s neck. “Good job, Lance,” Hunk whispered softly. Of course, the Yellow Paladin knew of his little crush. Not that the Cuban boy told him, it was just that the little snoop stuck his nose into the Blue Paladin’s most personal possession, his diary. 

 

Lance sighed softly. “I know. Please kill me.” 

 

“I love you too much to do that,” Hunk responded softly.

 

“If you loved me enough, you would do it,” Lance said.

 

Hunk looked up at him, the best he could with Lance having his chin on his shoulder, eyebrows furrowed. “If you loved me enough, you wouldn’t be asking me that question. Besides, you don’t really want to die, do you?” Worry leaked into his chocolate brown eyes. 

 

“You’re right, I’m sorry.” Then, Lance answered, “No, I don’t. If I did, I wouldn’t be able to see my favorite person in the world.” He smiled softly at Hunk. 

 

Hunk started to blush. “Awe, you’re too swe-” 

 

“Shiro,” Lance whispered into his ear before sighing dreamily.

 

“Oh, fuck off!” Hunk said loudly causing Lance to burst out laughing. 

 

“Language!” Shiro declared, his head turned just enough to glare at them. Besides him, nobody was paying attention to the duo, not caring enough. 

 

For once, Lance wasn’t paying attention to his hero. He was laughing too hard and trying to keep his balance as Hunk who tried to kick him off his back jokingly, with a false frown that he was trying hard not to turn into a smile. 

 

“Stop it!” Lance yelled, laughing and clinging onto his friend.

 

“I will once you admit that I am your favorite person in the world,” Hunk said, holding on tighter to Lance, but still pretending to be trying to get him off. 

 

“Alright! Truce!” he said. 

 

Hunk momentarily stopped to hear him out.

 

Lance leaned into his ear and whispered. “Shiro is still my favorite person in the world~”

 

“That’s it! The Hunk train has reached the end and you are off!” he stated, spinning in circles.

 

Lance held on closer, giggling along with Hunk. “Okay! Okay!” 

 

Once more, Hunk stopped.

 

Lance moved his hands and pinched his cheeks. “You know that you are my favorite person~”

 

Hunk chuckled softly. “Is it really true? I’m your favowite person~” He purposely spoke in a baby voice on favorite.

 

Lance smiled softly. “Yeah.” Instinctively, he looked up. 

 

Shiro, who had his arms crossed over his large chest, was watching them with a disapproving face. Almost mad, or maybe annoyed. “Are you guys done?”

 

Lance furrowed his eyebrows, not liking his tone. “Yeah...” he mumbled, unable to question it aloud. He was probably reaching the end of his patience. That was his fault.

 

“While you two were horsing around, we’re here,” Shiro said. His tone didn’t change, but there was an undertone of bitterness as he spoke, Lance didn’t know where that came from, “Now, could you please get off Hunk?”

 

“Just because of the way you said that, I will stay on Hunk,” he huffed, setting his chin back on Hunk’s shoulder. 

 

“Lance,” Shiro said in a warning voice. 

 

“Yes?” Lance acted innocently.

 

“I’m not telling you again,” he said plainly.

 

“You’re not my dad.”

 

“But I am your leader.”

 

Lance didn’t even know why he continued arguing with him. If anything, he should be trying not to anger his crush. He was making Shiro dislike him and it hadn’t been the first time today to have this interaction. “Doesn’t mean anything. We’re not in a mission so you can’t control me.”

 

“We are on a mission, we are going to see the people we just saved. For quiznack’s sake, get off Hunk so we can make a good impression,” Shiro responded, growing progressively more impatient. 

 

“So? Just tell them it’s a human tradition or something,” Lance argued, “Make Pidge be on Keith’s back just to make it more believable.”

 

“I’m not going to lie to them just for your sake,” Shiro said, standing his ground. 

 

“Lance, maybe you shoul-” Hunk tried to interfere.

 

But Lance stopped him. “No, Hunk. I think I should stay here.” He narrowed his eyes. 

 

“Could you please stop being such a child?” Keith said, finally getting fed up with their argument. “Why do you insist on being on Hunk? Must you make everything so difficult?”  

 

“So now you’re going to be a dick too?” Lance started with Keith.

 

“Lance! Just stop it already,” Pidge said. “Act your age for once in your life.” 

 

“It’s over, buddy. Just get off,” Hunk said softly.

 

Lance opened his mouth to continue arguing, but he looked up at Shiro and saw the disapproval on his face. He had fucked up enough for the day. He took it too far. He closed his mouth and looked down. “Okay,” he mumbled and jumped off Hunk. 

 

“Thank you,” Shiro said, but he didn’t seem that much better. “You guys head in, I’ll have a chat with Lance.”

 

Lance felt like a child in school getting in trouble. He could practically hear his old peers ‘ooh’ing away at the situation. The rest of the Paladins walked inside the large castle seemingly made out of gold. 

 

Hunk lingered behind and looked at Lance. He mouthed a few words of encouragement before following the others. Hunk, as good as he was a lot of things, was not good at mouthing so Lance understood nothing, but the message got across. 

 

Lance turned his attention to Shiro. He crossed his arms over his chest, avoiding eye contact by looking at the castle instead. It looked pretty, if Lance could ever have a castle, he would want one like this one. It had many towers, a soft sound of water falling as two water fountain like things stood high by the entrance. The only water he had seen so far in this dry planet.

 

“What is up with you today?” Shiro started. “You’ve been arguing with me for days now. Am I your new Keith, or what?”

 

Lance almost laughed at the thought. Instead, he just said, “No.”

 

“You’re lucky we were able to defeat the Galra fleet. You almost threw off our whole coordination, what’s wrong?” 

 

Lance said nothing, refusing to look at Shiro. He didn’t even know why he was doing this. Shiro was his hero, so why was he trying to disappoint him? Was it because Lance wanted the older male to pay attention to him, whether good or bad? Maybe it would be easier to get over him if Shiro was a dick to him? Or maybe Lance hated himself. The answer was unclear.

 

“Lance?” Shiro asked softly after a few moments of silence.

 

“I don’t know,” he responded.

 

“Why don’t you know?”

 

“I don’t know why I don’t know!” Lance said loudly, exasperated. “Maybe I just…”  _ love you and don’t know how to handle it anymore.  _

 

“You just what?” 

 

Lance moved his body so he was no longer able to see him. 

 

“Lance, you what?”

 

Lance clenched his teeth together, his throat closing in on itself. “I-I don’t know.”

 

“Well, you seem to have some idea. You have to tell me so we can work through it. It’s not good for the team otherwise.” Shiro moved so he was in Lance’s line of vision once more.

 

Lance scoffed. He felt his eyes tear up. This was stupid. He was stupid. He took off his helmet and held it in his hands, tightly. He kept his gaze down at the helmet. His reflection stared up at him, disappointed at him. Lance couldn’t recognize the boy on his visor as his vision blurred further. “If I say I don’t know, I don’t know,” he forced out, feeling like throwing up.

 

“It’s okay, whatever you say, I won’t be mad,” Shiro whispered, as if speaking to a scared, wild puppy.

 

Lance laughed weakly. “I doubt that.” 

 

“I promise.” Lance couldn’t tell if Shiro knew how much he was suffering at the moment, or if he was just ignoring it.

 

Lance finally dared to look up at Shiro. Once his teary ones met the other’s grey, dry ones, Shiro’s expression softened. Lance sniffled, dropping his helmet. He rubbed angrily at his tears. “It’s stupid. Soy bien tonto por dejarme sentir esto por ti. Por supuesto tu nunca te gustaria.”  _ I’m stupid for letting myself feel this way for you. Of course you would never like me. _

 

Shiro furrowed his eyebrows, not understanding him. At least, Lance hoped. He still continued on his rant, “Te conoci como esta persona que era tan grandiosa en el Garrison. Tu fuiste mi idolo. Cuando te conoci,” _ I knew you as this amazing person who was so great at the Garrison. You were my idol. When I met you,  _ Lance stopped rubbing at his face and sniffled. He looked up at Shiro and met his gaze, “Esa admiración se convirtió en amor. Yo se que no me puedo sentir asi. Estas en la guerra por el amor de Dios!” _ This admiration formed into love. I know I can’t be feeling this way, this is war for Christ’s sake!  _  he practically screamed. “Porque tienes que ser tan…  tan perfecto? Trate y trate tan fuerte para no amarte pero cada vez me caigo por ti. Y te odio.Te odio! _ ” Why do you have to be so… so perfect? I tried and tried so hard to not love you but every time, I would keep falling for you. And I hate you. I hate you!  _

 

He moved closer to Shiro, borderline bawling. He weakly thrusted his fist into his chest plate. “Te odio,” he said softly, sending another fist to his chest, slowly sinking down to the floor. 

 

Shiro wrapped his arms around Lance’s waist, following him down, gently setting them down on the ground. He hadn’t said anything the entire time Lance had been spewing unplanned nonsense in language he understand. But one thing was clear, the Cuban boy was upset.

 

Lance had stopped pounding softly against his chest and just cried softly, burying his face into his neck. Soft mumbles escaped his lips, “I hate you. I hate you.”

 

Shiro stayed quiet, rubbing lightly at the space beneath Lance’s chest plate. His hold tightened when he finally understood what the Blue Paladin had been saying. “Sh, it’s okay,” he said softly.

 

Lance sniffled, holding on to Shiro tightly. He stayed silent, taking comfort in Shiro’s soft touches. He took a deep breath after a few moments of silence and pulled away. “No, it’s not okay.” He rubbed at his face furiously before looking up at Shiro. “Shiro, I have something to say. I think I finally can say it.”

 

Shiro scanned his face before nodding, encouraging him to continue talking.

 

Lance gulped, feeling the tightness around his throat, but he wasn’t going to cry anymore. He was too tired. “I’m, like,” he giggled nervously, looking away from the older male, in fear of his reaction, “In love with you, Shiro.”

 

Shiro didn’t respond. He didn’t say anything.

 

Fear built in Lance as he waited. And waited. And waited. It was only a few seconds before the curiosity got the best of him and he turned to look at the other.

 

Shiro’s face was shocked, but happy at the same time. “Lance…”

 

Lance’s eyes examined the Black Paladin’s face, a smile forming slowly on his mouth. “Yes?”

 

“Oh, Lance, I have loved you since a couple days after meeting you. It was hard not to. Why haven’t you told me?” Shiro asked, holding Lance’s hands in his own.

 

“Excuse me, why haven’t you told me?” Lance said accusingly, the smile still planted on his face. Nothing could take away his happiness.

 

“I’m your leader, it’s inappropriate and I didn’t want to somehow… I don’t know, force you into the relationship in a way? I didn’t want you to feel obligated,” Shiro said as he cupped Lance’s cheeks, wiping away at Lance’s tears.

 

Lance laughed at his reasoning. “So in the end, we were both stupid, huh?”

 

Shiro chuckled, “Yeah, I guess so. I’m glad you told me Lance.”

 

Lance sniffled. “I know I look like shit after crying, but can I please kiss you? I have been wanting to do that since I met you.”

 

“Don’t have to ask me twice,” Shiro joked, leaning in to press their lips together. 

 

Lance was so happy, he was praying this wasn’t all just another dream where his imagination took his feelings way too far.

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

Shadows.

 

They lie.

 

But as Lance and Shiro walked hand in hand back to the castle, they no longer lied. 

  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I actually had this idea around august last year. I wrote two sentences before giving up. A few days ago, I picked it up again and wrote more words in one chapter (per say) than I have ever before. I was very much proud of myself! 2776, can you believe it? I sure couldn't.
> 
> If you, for some reason, wanna talk to me, I'm available at Tumblr. My user name is galaxy-gayrrison 
> 
> Leave constructive criticism if you have any!


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